Search form

Main menu

Judge's Decision Is Disappointing, But Fight Over Program's Legality Is Not Over

After the D.C. District Court found the NSA’s record collection program unconstitutional just last week, we are obviously disappointed and disagree with Judge Wiliam H. Pauley’s decision in ACLU v. Clapper today. Among other things, the decision relied on government justifications for the program that have been repeatedly disproven, and a 30-year-old Supreme Court decision concerning the call records of a single person over a matter of weeks. Neither provides a legitimate basis for the NSA to vacuum up the call records of hundreds of millions of Americans without any suspicion of wrongdoing, and to keep and search those records for 5 years. EFF filed an amicus brief in the ACLU case on behalf of Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, the author of the Patriot Act.

EFF still has two cases challenging the NSA’s records collection program pending in the Northern District of California, First Unitarian v. NSA and Jewel v. NSA, and we look forward to having those cases heard. In spite of the ruling today, the fight over the legality of the NSA's surveillance programs is far from over.